Global Navigation

Primary Navigation

Vol.02

CANOE TOURING

This is a real jungle cruise.

During this travel, there was a place two people would like to visit by any means. It is a mangrove virgin forest spreading around Sumiyo-cho in Southern Amami-Oshima. When they came near to a rise, cycling along the route 58 to the south, the imposing mangroves spreading in the foreground jumped into our eyes. “Amazing ……!” They were staring intently at the mangrove forest, even though they were pedaling bicycles. The cycling pace also naturally quickened. An unknown world difficult to understand by seeing it from the above must be spreading over there.

This was a long-awaited bike packing trip, so why didn’t they put our bicycles and luggage into the canoes. The ride style with a bicycle in the canoe is photogenic (laughing), and you can’t have such an experience anywhere else. Thinking it was a great opportunity, they hurried to fasten our bicycles to the canoes. Making slight adjustment for the center of gravity to come to the center of the boats, they were ready to go on a real jungle cruise.

A mangrove is a group of plant that lives and grows in the brackish water region where seawater mixes with fresh water. The mangrove virgin forest in the Sumiyo Bay spreads to a vast tidal flat zone where two large rivers of the Yakugachi River and the Sumiyo River come to one, and it stands in the second place on the nationwide scale. Comparatively thick clouds were covering the sky but there was no sign of rainfall yet. It is a happy miscalculation, if they came to think of a rainfall predicted by the weather forecast last night. It is not clear and sunny weather like the one of a southern country but they had such wonderful weather to be able to enjoy sea activities.

At the same time, the weather forecast in Amami tends to be often too inaccurate to rely on at the rainy season. The weather was still holding anyhow now but they couldn’t shrug off the worry of rainfall. Before they knew it, the canoes traveled farther than expected by checking canoes’ tracking by location memory function. It's about the time to call off this activity. They were going to the next destination before it started to rain.

But, they took souvenir pictures before they forgot. They’ll never miss a chance even though they’re hurrying up for the next plan.

PHOTOGRAPH

WSD-F20 useful functions!

Individual action tracks to be recorded for confirmation at a glance.

LOCATION MEMORY

An application program is available to indicate a present location on the color map through working closely with GPS. As with the case of a current location, the application makes it possible to track a personal behavior including canoe pathways and mountain trekking routes. As tracks remain as a history, it is interesting to take a look at the history, for example, about how we moved while traveling. And besides, if the map is downloaded to the clock in advance, it is possible to use it as a guide even with no smartphone at hand or outside of service areas of smartphones, like deep in the mountains.

* During iOS connection, usable functions are restricted.

This shows the tracks of this canoe touring. A longer distance was rowed than expected. An exquisite sense of accomplishment embraced me.

MyRadar

We cannot pay too much attention to sudden rain while engaging in outdoor activities. "MyRadar" tells us the movements of rain and clouds around a current location and makes it possible for us to prepare to find a temporal shelter or put on rain gear. It provides us with information about the timing of rain stop and lighting for us to make adequate judgment and action.